Chapter 9: Mirrors, Transportation, and A Whole Bunch of Problems

Not a lot of text today, but I do have some really good sound bites for you! 

Also, Dr. Poe said that we need to be thinking about projects that we will complete by the end of the term, and when I asked him after class what exactly we would need to do he said, "You already have a project! It's your blog! Why on earth would you want to do anything more?" So now not only am I able to share with you what we are talking about in class, but I'm getting credit for it as well! 

And we aren't the only ones talking about Harry Potter and the Gospel. Check out what this article has to say about the boy that lived. 

That is all for now, but we have some GREAT material on the way!

- V. B. 

For C. S. Lewis, stories started as pictures, not with a plot or idea. Rowling is different.

           

How do you get from one world to another one?

Looking glasses and rabbit holes work for Alice, rings work for Digory and Polly, wardrobes work for Lucy, so on and so forth.

How does Harry get from the Muggle world to Hogwarts? No one knows were Hogwarts is, or how to get there except on the Hogwarts Express from King’s Cross. King’s Cross is a train station, but where did King’s Cross get its name? On the one hand it was because of a statue of King George IV at a cross roads that was torn down after his death when the station was being built. But the name started because when a queen was buried, everywhere the coffin stopped the king would erect a cross.

But there is more to it then that. Much like Harry, you can only get to the other world from THE King’s cross.

So, the real question is how do we get to Heaven?

We are flesh and blood, and there are some things that flesh and blood can’t do. (Dr. Poe demonstrated by walking into the wall several times.) So how do we get to Heaven?

Rowling also uses the “S” word! SIN! Even Lewis didn’t use the word sin in his books. She uses it on page 72 talking about the sin of greed.

Problems, right from the beginning

Ron has an anger problem, and (in the first book) Hermoine has no friends, and Harry has no self-identity. He wants family and a sense of belonging.

Voldemort is, in many ways, Harry’s mirror. They both have no parents, they both rebel in some ways as teens, but it is the choices that Harry makes that make him different from Voldemort.

Hagrid is very much in the same boat as Harry because he is an orphan as well.

Snape says he can bottle fame, brew glory, and stopper death. Dr. Poe knows how to do the same thing! The key is the Bible. God is full of Glory, Jesus stopped death, and His name is known across the globe.

The Mirror of Erised (Desire)

Galatians 5:16

Next time we will talk about death, Neville, and Nicholas Flamel.

“There is more to succeeding at Hogwarts than fame and Wikipedia.” – Dr. Poe

Chapter 8: Philosopher or Sorcerer? And what is the difference anyway?

This is an important chapter! 
-First of all, we have now topped 500 views! 
-Secondly, Dr. Poe took a look at the blog and said he really like it!
-Thirdly, I have been told that Sam is using this blog as a resource for her 12 page paper on why Harry Potter isn't evil. (Good luck on that paper Sam!)
-And last but not least, I have spent my entire evening going over the hour of lecture audio and turning the best parts into little videos so that you can hear the best parts of the lectures without listening to the whole thing and so that you can put my notes in better context.


Hope you enjoy what we have in store this chapter and if you haven't already, like the page on Facebook so that you can give me some feedback!


-V. B.

What is a world view? The core beliefs and values of a culture.

What is the Gospel?

1. Creator God (if you don’t accept that, nothing else makes sense)

2. God spoke through the prophets (what makes the Bible 

    difference, is the fact that it has prophecy [and they come true])

3. Jesus is fully human and fully God incarnate.

4. Jesus died for our sins.

5. Jesus rose from the dead.

6. Jesus is exulted to the right hand of God.

7. Gift of the Holy Spirit

8. Second coming

C. S. Lewis works with different parts of the Gospel in each of his book. Generally, if a book uses one part of the Gospel story, that is what makes it a “Christian” book. Rowling does it differently than Lewis, so we will look at that.

Lewis says that the best thing for Christianity is not “more little Christian books,” but rather a bunch of books about anything and everything that just so happen to be written by Christians. The Inklings saw Jane Austen as a wonderful “Christian” writer because Christianity was all through her books even though she wasn’t defending Christianity from anyone nor was Christianity the focus of her books.

Alchemy and Philosophy?

Sir Isaac Newton was obsessed with Alchemy. At the time, his only focus was trying to turn lead into gold. Now we see him as a “scientist” because of all of his other findings he bumped into along the way, but there were no “scientists” in his time, only philosophers. That is to say, there were people who were interested in “Natural Philosophy,” the study of the way things are.

In Harry Potter, Potions class is really nothing more than just a romantic view of Chemistry or Pharmacy. It is a way of talking about science in a Supernaturalist sort of way. This is the difference between Naturalists and Supernaturalists. Naturalists see what is here, where Supernaturalists know that there is something beyond this world. 

Rowling (like Tolkien) acknowledges that there is “something else out there” but doesn’t talk about God directly.

Druids 

When Caesar took over the Western Europe, he came in contact with the Celtic and Germanic people. Caesar loved war and saw himself much like Alexander the Great, and yet he had never come in contact with anything like the Celts every before. And when he did, it wasn’t pretty.

The gods take the Life Force out of those that die. 

If something is going wrong, you must give the gods what they want, so you have to give them Life Force. You don’t want to give them your life force, but children are an easy source of life source. So you would meet the gods usually in a scared grove of trees and then give the baby to the Druid priests (Druids were the gods and spirits) to kill the baby. 

Caesar was appalled by this. He exported some of these Celts to an area in Asia Minor later called Galatia. He also outlawed human sacrifice. As time goes by, Rome falls and the southern parts of Europe becomes Christian. Rome never really got a foothold in the northern regions.

Fairytales

In the Hansel and Gretel the witch is the memory of this old religion. Rumpelstiltskin is very much the embodiment of a druid spirit because he wants the first born child. Rapunzel is a young, virgin priestess being kept by a witch.

Snow White is an allegory of the Gospel. Snow eats the apple (sin) because of temptation (Satan), then because of Charming’s love (God/Christ’s love) she is brought back to life (redemption of the church to everlasting life with Christ). 

The Matrix also has the sacrificial death, even though it is very much a secular story.

St. Patrick

Went into these Celtic regions and into their scared groves and cast the demons out of the groves. When the Irish heard that they must eat the “flesh” and drink the “blood” Christ, the had mass conversions. Typically, the queen of a region would convert and then convince the king to convert. After these mass conversions, there were mass missionary missions to the other Celtic regions.

In the old mythologies, there is a creator God, above the other gods, who will come back one day to judge the world. This ties in well what the already know.

Philosopher or Sorcerer?

In most cultures, science and religion are the one and the same because they both deal with the pursuit of knowledge. This is why Rowling called the book The Philosopher’s Stone, because alchemy was a philosopher’s realm. It is because American culture does not fully understand this view of knowledge and philosophy that the title was changed in America.

The Sword of Gryffindor

The sword in the stone will only yield to the right man. Aragorn’s sword (Narsil) can only be wielded by the right heir. Wagner’s opera has a similar sword story. Where does this come from? The Sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:11-17 and the armor of God) 

Life is precious because God loves the world. Our culture has gotten rid of God, and now we are loosing our regard for life.

Beginning in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, we are introduced to the idea that there is an existence beyond this world. This theme will build with each book.

What points of the Gospel is Rowling dealing with? Lily Potter offers her life in place of Harry’s life. (Substitution) We will deal with this more later.

The Christian apologetics of Harry Potter lie within the fact that Rowling weaves a story that makes sense and is believable, and yet it follows the path of the Gospels. Our culture no longer knows the basic ideas of the Gospel, so Rowling is building a foundation on which to base a very basic knowledge.

Chapter 7: Foreshadowing and the Sorcerer's Stone

This chapter requires a bit of explanation. Today we had our first 10 question quiz over Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (I know I got a few wrong because I wasn't really sure what to expect on the quiz and I've read the next two books already, so the first book isn't that fresh in my memory now...) The last question on the quiz was, "What is your favorite instance of foreshadowing in the book?" ("Book" meaning the entire series, since it is all one story) When we were done with the quiz, Dr. Poe asked us what we put down for the last question. This then launched us into our discussion of the book.

Good News: We had a wonderful class talking about the book, foreshadowing, how it all tied in with Biblical truth.

Bad News: It is REALLY hard to take cohesive notes about a discussion and still be a part of the discussion. So... once again I don't really have much for you to read this time around. BUT...

Good News! I recorded the entire discussion! (with Dr. Poe's permission of course) I tried to edit out the parts where you couldn't hear the student talking or where there was a long pause, but this is pretty much the bulk of the class. I know that 45+ minutes of listening is a bit much, and it's a bit hard to hear at times, but I'm going to try this out and see how it works. Let me know what you think of it! 

You can send me feedback about the blog at this Facebook page.

And here is the recording for you.

In the meantime, I will continue to search for the best way to deliver recordings to you all.


- V. B. 

Foreshadowing is much like the fulfillment of prophecy.

While Rowling was writing these books while the Lord of the Rings and Narnia were in the process of being filmed. She intentionally writes about a substitutionary death in the midst of the controversy that was being made about these books and their Christian background.

Harry has a “saving people thing” that makes him a Messianic Figure (also known as Christ Figure, Jesus Figure). He is always looking out for and saving his friends.

Rowling makes a case for sin in a relativistic world. She shows that all have sinned, even the “good guys” have messed up in one way or another.

Rowling deals with the stages of adolescent development throughout the books.

Early adolescences: Issues are self-esteem, importance of parents (but Harry doesn’t have parents)

Middle adolescences: Independence, the beginning of separation from parents. Could take the form of rebellion or subversion. 

Late adolescences: Identity, “Who am I now that I’m no longer defined by my parents, siblings, school, etc?” Who are you in relationship with other people? 

Chapter 6: A Biblical History of Wizards

Today we talked about the great "wizards" of the past that founded our houses and some of the spells, magic, and wonderful things that they have done. 

Moses

Returned to Egypt to free the Israelites, God turns his staff into a snake and Pharaohs magicians do the same thing, but God's snake eats them.

Curses and plagues. "Transfiguration" of water and blood. The curse of death was over everyone, but there was a way out if they put blood on there door.

Snakes show up everywhere in Harry Potter.

In C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair, the sorceress is a green and silver snake (just like Slytherin.) 

Elijah

He was a prophet. Has a showdown with the prophets of Baal. Raises people from the dead.

Dumbledore and McGonagall both dislike divination. Divination is VERY different from prophesy. The difference lies within the source of the power. Divination is trying to pry truth away from the universe. Rowling is very negative about divination over all.

St. Patrick

Drove the snakes out of Ireland. Showed the power of God to the druid priests. Had visions.

St. Anthony

The founder of monasticism.  Ironically, leaves his sister at a convent so that he can go and start monasticism. Numerous encounters with the demonic. His biography was a favorite of St. Augustine.

Paul

Well-educated, survived stoning and snakebites, divine encounter with God, and many other things. 

Peter

Seen as the leader of the disciples. Walked on water (briefly). Healed the lame and sick. Simon the Sorcerer wanted to buy power from Peter, and then Peter condemned him, but this actually brings about Simon’s redemption. Peter also had visions. Goes to Cornelius’ house and has to explain how Gentiles now have the Holy Spirit. (Almost like Muggles suddenly becoming magical)

Elisha

Parted the Jordan River. Purified water by adding salt. Cursed those that made fun of his baldness. The widow’s oil and flour never runs out. Floating axe head.

Rowling bases much of her magic from the Biblical prophets.

A prophet (“Nabi” Hebrew means “gusher” you can’t ever shut them up) is not teller of the future. God said that telling the future was the sign that God would use to show that they are true prophet.

Prophecy have 3 forms. Shot term (within a few years), medium term (a few generation’s later), and long term (usually dealing with the coming of Jesus and the end times) prophecies.

For a long time there has been a movement to try to prove a logical reason for all the miracles in the Bible, but they always fail or are hung up on one thing or another. One explanation is that God only intervenes if it is a matter of conversion, but if that were the case, Elisha's axe head miracle makes no sense. 

Divination

Important around the world. People wanted to know what is going to happen. Through the years there have been many methods of divinations. The Bible doesn’t say that divination and necromancy can’t be done, it says NOT to do it.

Rowling has a lot to say about the dead and always says that trying to call up the dead is a bad idea. (This is different from the Hogwarts ghosts, but we will cover that later)

Canaanites

Believed the gods wanted human blood. They would drink the blood of their first-born child to gain the power from the god, cook the child and then eat it. 

God tells Abraham to have nothing to do with the cult, but then asks him to sacrifice his one and only son, but then God intervenes and provides a lamb. God is always limiting sacrifice more and more until there is just one sacrifice to atone for all sins.

Israelites are constantly drawn back to this Canaanite cultic worship and God has to continually punish them for it. 

Basic elements of the historical Gospel (pre-1910, since then the “gospel” is seen as something different)

1. Creator God (if you don’t accept that, nothing else makes sense)

2. God spoke through the prophets (this is what makes the Bible    

    different from all other holy books, the fact that it has prophecy 

    and they come true)

3. Jesus is fully human and fully God incarnate.

4. Jesus died for our sins.

5. Jesus rose from the dead.

6. Jesus is exulted to the right hand of God.

7. Gift of the Holy Spirit

8. Second coming

The prophets didn’t do the miracles under their own power, but with the power of God. That is what makes miracles different from black magic.

We start talking about the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone next week! 

- V. B.

Dr. Poe quote of the day: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. And see! You are all sitting!”

Chapter 5: A Short Interlude With Art

So today's notes are a bit shorter. Not because the lecture wasn't interesting, but because I was recording it and was hoping I could put in some sound bits this time around. Sadly, it didn't work the way I had hoped and the recording was unusable. I will be trying other methods to see if there is some way I can make it work. I'll keep you all posted. 

- V. B. 

A worldview is what gives a culture cohesiveness. Common worldviews share common Philosophy, Religions, Political, Art

In the Middle Age these were Platonic, Christianity, Feudalism, Art that wasn’t aimed at realism.

Plato was interested in the other world, Aristotle was interested in this world. Take Aristotle’s ideas and “stir them around for a while and you get Individualism, and put it on steroids and you have the United States.”

In between times, you have overlap where there is change. We are in a worldview shift right now. From Modernism (or Post-Modernism) to whatever is coming next. Our culture no longer has a cohesive philosophy, just like the Roman Empire. We have a lot of Perspectives, but not a common worldview.

Art is a canary in the mine. If there are poison gases in the air, the canary will die before the miners will. Art is a good judge of where culture is going. If there is no worldview, artists don’t know what to do with art. Art has never been the same after World War I. Art is the way we think of the direction of our culture.

Up until the WWI, most of the world was run by monarchies. During the war, Germany, Russia, Egypt, China, and the French (who couldn’t really make up their minds if they wanted a king or not) lost their kings. We have had several types of art arise since this time. Movies, sound recording, picture cameras are a blending of art with machines.

In stories, a culture will show its values. In epic stories, heroes will have good traits and perhaps a tragic flaw and villains will have bad traits. Love stories only arose after the 11^th century because of Christianity and Paul in 1^st Corinthians 7. Read The Allegory of Love by C S Lewis for more on the beginnings of romantic love.

Thomas Hardy tries to hold on to Christian values but without the God that makes them possible. Thus his stories are doomed to pessimism.

Science fiction and Mysteries both became popular around the same time. The 3^rd mystery story written was The Gold Bug, and the tricky part about the book is that you had to find out that there IS a mystery before you can look for the answer. Rowling does the exact same thing with Harry. He has to find that there is a mystery before he can solve it.

The Houses were then asked what the core values of Rowling's wizard world were. Here are a few of the things we came up with.

The core values of the wizard world are:

- Education (going to Hogwarts)

- Division from Muggles

- Ultimate truth – Rowling is not a relativist. There is truth.   

  Harry’s biggest flaw is that he is dishonest. The Daily Prophet is 

  always shown in a bad light.

- Family is very important, even with people like the Malfoy’s.   

  The Weasley’s are the model family because of their love. Harry 

  Potter is very much about love and death.

- Choices have consequences.

Next time, we will talk about the founders of our "Houses." 

Chapter 4: The Good, The Bad, and Plato

For this post, I have some good news and some bad news. 

- Bad news is that this post is a bit shorter because a lot of what we covered in class was review from last time or concepts that I already was familiar with.  A major part of our class the Plato's allegory of the cave, which I'm familiar with from other philosophy classes and I wasn't really sure how to explain it well in my notes. If you are unfamiliar with Plato's Cave read this article and then go watch The Matrix.

- Good news! Not only have we toped 150 visits to the page already (big thanks everyone!) but I also have some news about the class itself. After we apparated out of class, I conversed with Dr. Poe and he said that he not only thought that the distribution of knowledge that you are reading right now was a wonderful idea, he also said that he would permit me to record him in the future. Therefore, you may very well be able to listen or watch parts of lectures in the near future. I still have to learn some of the spells that will be needed to make this happen, but I wanted you to know you have something to look forward to!

That is all for now. Enjoy this week's installment and start spreading the word among your friends about this blog! 

- Victor Bennet 

Last class, we said that we had the same worldview as Dawkins. This time we are going to explain that. Everyone has a different point of view. Up until a few decades ago, we looked at the worldview of the culture and the worldview of the individual as the same thing. We share with Dawkins a Western worldview, even though our points of view of the universe and God are very different. (This is Dr. Poe's explanation. I personally find terms a little harder to follow, but then again I greatly enjoyed reading Sire. -V.B.)

Christians are cultural deviants. Our culture's understanding or view of God is very different from the way that we look at God.

After 411, “Rome” moves to Constantinople. “Rome” ended in May 1453 when the Turks invaded Constantinople. When the church lost its empire, it thought the world was coming to an end because they had "taken Revelation, multiplied it by Daniel, and divided by Ezekiel." They determined that the Lord would return in 1492 (the same year Spain started the Inquisition, Columbus sailed, and Nearly Headless Nick was *almost* beheaded). When Jesus didn’t return, the church didn’t know what to do. Thus they either had to come to terms with the fact that they had interprated the Bible incorrectly and that they had believed what they wanted the Bible say. It was because of there preconceived notions that they were wrong. But rather than admit that they were wrong, the Russian church said that Moscow must be the third “Rome” and that the king must be Cesar (Tzar). 

Back in the days of the Roman Empire, there wasn’t much consentience on anything but peace, thus they gave up for their Republic for the Empire.

St Augustine read the Bible through the eyes of Plato and when you do this, the Bible does some interesting things. Augustine’s view gave the Middle Ages a concise view that everyone agreed on. 

In Timaeus, Plato said that the Over Soul emitted matter (but did not create it). The highest form of matter is Man (not Mankind, just Men). This is because of the Greeks love of courage. If a man is courageous, they rise to a higher from, but if they weren’t courageous they would become a lower form of life (a woman). Plato had a high view of kings and believed that everyone had their place in the hierarchy of live. Thus, this birthed the feudal system.

St. Augustine brought in the Middle Ages. By 1250, Thomas Aquinas was the great thinker of the Middle Ages and he loved Aristotle.  If you change one ingredient of a worldview, you will come up with a different culture because the core values have all changed. Out of the core values come our customs and behavior, and from those come institutions.

Lewis’ first scholarly work was a book on the change of marriage from a business deal to romantic love. When he started writing he was a atheist, when he finished he was a Christian.

In a culture, you have different types of ideas. Religious, philosophical, political, social scientific, and moral/ethical ideas that make up a cultural worldview. A lot of people like James Sire, just look at philosophical questions that make up a view points. (And here I interject again. James Sire wrote a wonderful book called The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog that I highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in the subject of worldviews. The book gives an overview of the worlds key worldviews [theism, atheism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, postmodernism and the like] and explains their shortcomings when compared to true Christianity. This is a book that gives a good basic understanding to how the world around us thinks and is a constant part of my bookshelf. -V.B.)

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge (what do you know and how do you know it?). Empiricism is one form of knowledge ("Jews demand a sign") Rationalism is another ("Greeks desire knowledge"). During the Enlightenment, you have two movements: Naturalism and Materialism. Empiricism isn’t that big of a deal because a dog or a sunflower is an Empiricist. But Plato said that matter is evil, therefore Empiricism is bad. What we see is not the real world, but the real world is the world of ideals. We only see a fallen world of reflections of the true forms. We remember how things were when we were parts of the Over Soul, this is apriori knowledge (prior knowledge). (See Plato's Cave)

Next time we will talk about Aristotle and Rowling and how they relate.

Chapter 3: Muggles, Magic, and C. S. Lewis

When did we first hear about magic? Santa, fairy tales, etc.What is magic about Santa? He has a flying sleigh with flying reindeer. What is magical in Fairy Tales? Cinderella’s godmother. What is a godmother? It is a Christian term. Who is Santa? He is SAINT Nick. What is a saint? A Christian. So there you have it! The start of Christian themes in magical stories!

What is Magic?

There are three categories it can fall into and Rowling deals with all three of these in her books.

1. Make believe – Not related to facts in anyway, just for fun and story telling.

2. Wisdom and knowledge – In ancient times, studying to gain wisdom and knowledge was considered supernatural.

3. Occult religion – Associated with dark powers, Satan worship, and the like.

C. S. Lewis didn’t choose to do philosophical work, because his “day job” was medieval literature. He didn’t start with Christian apologetics, but rather, was asked by his book publisher. The publisher asked him to write on how there can be suffering if there is a loving God in heaven. The book did well, and a programmer at BBC radio wanted Lewis to talk on the radio. These talks became the book Mere Christianity. His last apologetics book was called Miracles and he was asked to do this book by Dorothy L Sayers.

Sayers started as a mystery writer but then became interested in Christian apologetics. Sayers loved drama and so started writing Christian apologetic drama. Sayers said that someone must write a book on miracles, because there is no place for God in a cause and effect universe. And we live in a world that only knows cause and effect.

In his book, Lewis broke the world into two parts: People that believe in “something else out there” and those that don’t. Thus there are “Naturalists” and “Supernaturalist”. Rowling is doing the same thing that Sayers did with drama and what Lewis did in his fiction only she used the word Muggle to describe Naturalists. Harry is a true innocent. He doesn’t know anything at the very beginning and then learns about the supernatural over time.

Lewis said that a logical argument in apologetics was to be used for the edification of those who already believe (Poe disagrees because Chuck Colson’s conversion due to reading Mere Christianity disproves that idea). Lewis said that the best type of apologetics was a book of any subject with Christianity underneath it all.

Dr. Poe has written many Christian works, but wrote a book on Edger Allen Poe for the recent bicentennial. Hal Poe followed Edger Allen Poe’s human struggle and eventual conversion and used it to place Christianity underneath the overall story. The book won the Edger Award and was very popular.

Muggles

Richard Dawkins is a good example of a “Muggle”. He would say that the Bible is a book of “magic” and make believe. Marxism is a purely “Muggle” philosophy.

Worldview - The core values and beliefs of a culture.

What is Rowling’s attitude toward the history of magic?

Ron and Harry find it boring. Hermione finds it very useful. Their teacher is a ghost. He was so boring he didn’t even notice he died and has just continued to teach.

So what is Rowling’s view of history?

Personal history is important. Personal background is very important. But… how do you solve the Chamber of Secrets if you don’t know the history?

We have to know how we got here, what we are doing, and where we are going.

How would Harry’s relationship with Snape changed if he had known their relational history

What are her thoughts on history teachers?

She has strong views on what is a good teacher and a bad teacher. She loves education. She loves history but hate the way it is taught.

Timelines

The Bible has a timeline from the beginning to the end of time. Hebrews saw history as cyclical rather than linier. Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. Seasons are a cycle. There is no physical evidence that history is linier in their eyes.

The Bible adds direction. It shows that the world had a beginning and is going somewhere.

Until the 1970s it was believed that the universe had just always existed. But then science caught up with the Bible and found that there was a sudden beginning to the universe from nothing.

Where does a linier view of history come from all of the sudden? Revelation from God. Cyclical views of history always have a unconscious god or no god at all. The Bible (and the religions that came after it) has a personal God that is sending messengers that can be tested. If a prophet is from God, what he says will come true.

The prediction of future is a TEST. NOT the message. “Prophecies” are just to prove that the messengers are indeed from God. Isaiah had proven that he was a prophet said that Babylon was coming, that was his message. This was his message because it didn’t happen until much, much later. And lo and behold! When the time came Nebuchadnezzar took over!

The Bible has changed the way Western people thinks. You don’t even have to be a Christian to acknowledge that.

Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans and went to the land of the Canaanites. They were VERY different cultures. They had the same worldview, but very different cultures.

Dr. Poe and Richard Dawkins have the same worldview.

In fact, Dawkins and I have the same worldview.

If you stop to think about it, YOU and Dawkins have the same worldview. We just all have very different “cultures” or whys of thinking, and different points of view. (Yes that was a shocking statement in class and Dr. Poe promises more to come.)

The Babylonians have influenced us today. We have 24 hours in a day, because of them. We would have done it in base 10 because it’s easy to count on our fingers. But the Babylonians counted the JOINTS in their fingers (not including their thumb, because they counted with their thumb). 360 degrees in a circle was laid down by them as well.

After the Babylonians, came the Persians, then the Greeks. By the time of Christ, Jews couldn’t even read Hebrew because they only knew Greek. Then Rome came. Rome conquered the Greeks, but Greek culture conquered Rome. Rome included almost EVERY culture that they had conquered. They didn’t have a unified worldview, there was nothing to hold it together except the army.

In 411 Alaric sacked Rome and this started Augustine writing City of God.

And then Dr. Poe ran out of time and we have to wait until next week.

V. B.

Chapter 2: Arrival, House Sorting, and... St. Augustine?

And here we go! The very first set of notes, from the very first day of class on February 2nd. I have done a little bit of rearranging because some of these don't make much sense out of context, but I will only remind you that these are just my notes. Sadly, I am not the teacher, but rather just a lowly student trying to gain knowledge. Also it will be good to note that I did not take many notes this first day because a lot of class time was just spent going over the syllabus and taking care of class business.

I will also take the time to point out that these notes (as a whole or in part) may not in anyway shape or form reflect the views held by Union University, myself, or any other party mentioned within. These notes are also my intellectual property and may not be copied or reproduced in any form without written consent from me.

NOW! Without further adieu, here are my notes.

This course is going to be taught from the perspective that Rowling is a Christian and her books are obviously Christian books.

Rowling said that she has been asked many times if she believes in God, but never asked if she believes in Jesus. And she said that she does and that her books are all about Christian doctrine

Harry Potter is all one book with one story but all broken up into smaller bits, much like Tolkien. Tolkien didn’t know the overall story, but knew the details. Rowling knew the story but not the details.

This is going to be an evangelism class. Christians didn’t know what to do with Harry Potter because they don’t know what the Gospel is any more. Christianity is on the decline and we have forgotten the what the word of God really says.

Why do we tell stories as humans? It deals with our spirituality. All humans are spiritual, but not Godly. You can have spiritual stories that don’t have “Christian” or “Godly” answers.

Augustine wanted to know what kind of God exists. St. Augustine rejected God because he couldn’t believe in a God that was physical. The Manichean way of looking at the world says that the sun is a triangle that god looks out of to look at the world. The moon goes through phases as it fills up with souls of the dead and is dumped out when it is full. St. Augustine was influenced by the Manichean, but he rejected it because of the “modern science” that disproved it. (Edger Allen Poe had a theory about a “big bang” but it wasn’t given much thought during his time. But he was right, in that, the universe did indeed have a beginning rather than just always existing.) Augustine heard the preaching of Ambrose, and explain how the Bible describes God in poetic metaphors. At this point, Augustine was converted. His conversion had nothing to do with his knowledge of whether or not Jesus died for his sins. That wasn’t his turning point. We all have different turning points, so we can’t have an overarching formula for conversions like “Jesus died for your sins, so you should get saved."

America has many questions, so there isn’t any ONE answer that will solves America’s questions.

St. John opens his book with explaining what kind of God there is. Paul does the same thing with the alter to the “unknown god”.

Harry Potter will be used as a diagnostic tool to assess what spiritual issues people are going through. Each of the characters has different issues that they go through at different times.

You don’t have to “create” a “spiritual conversation, all you have to do is find God in whatever you are watching or reading. We are what we watch and read. So find out what people are watching and reading, then find God in it, and witness to them through that.

All the house are named after great wizards of old. Our house names are Moses, Elijah, St Patrick, St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Peter, Elisha. (I'm in Elijah)

The power of tradition is to stop something and never let it change.

V. B.

Chapter 1: An Appropriate Introduction

Greetings!

For those of you who do not know what this is, let me give you a quick overview and a bit of an introduction. This is a blog in which I will be posting my notes, thoughts, musings, and reactions to my Harry Potter and The Gospel class that I will be taking this semester at Union University. Many of my friends at school have asked me to share my notes with them so that they may enjoy the class vicariously, and thus I thought there would be no better way to do this than a blog.

This was a very sought after class at my school not only due to the fact that is may be the only time it is ever offered, but also in part because of the fact that almost everyone loves reading/watching/living/breathing Harry Potter these days. And then there is the added bonus that the one and only Dr. Hal Poe is teaching this course. If you don't know who Hal Poe is, I will now tell you. He is the closest, living, male relation to THE Edger Allen Poe. And to top that off, he is an amazing teacher that I have already had the pleasure of studying under.

Now, you might be a bit confused by the name of the course, so before we journey any farther let me clear this up. First of all, Union is a Southern Baptist school so we aren't just going to have a Harry Potter class just because we feel like it. Second of all, Dr. Poe is primarily a theology professor, blessing students with his knowledge in the New Testament and the Biblical Gospels whenever they are able to fit such a great class into their already tight schedules.


"But why on earth would a Christian school have a class about Harry Potter?" you might be asking. Depending on your experience with the books, your questions may range from "Aren't those books written by the devil himself to ensnare young readers into dark sorcery and lead them straight to the gates of Hell itself?" to perhaps the more moderate, "I don't really see anything 'Christian' in those books?" So how is Dr. Poe going to do this?

The answer is, I DON'T KNOW! That is why I am inviting you on this journey with me by posting you my notes and thoughts on the class as we progress through the semester. So join me as I explore these books and discover new stories and ideas for the first time!

But perhaps you would like to know a bit more about me before you join me in this quest for knowledge. Therefore, I will quickly introduce myself. You may call me Victor Bennet. I have never read the Harry Potter books before now, but I am already looking forward to reading them for a class. Although I was not allowed to read the books as a child (and had no desire to), I come to them now with an open mind. I have seen all the films now, but I have been told that doesn't really count. I am mostly interested in finding out for myself what all the fuss has been about for the past 15 years and if there is some theologically redeemable inner story to these books.

Although I will do my best to post my notes and thoughts twice a week, I will warn you now that I do have a full load of class work and responsibilities beyond our joint enlightenment. I cannot promise that my notes will either be understandable, thought provoking, or cohesive in anyway shape or form. Neither can I promise that they will be free of spelling and grammatical errors. In fact, I may almost promise that they will be rife with them! But if you can put up with my short comings as a student, I believe that this will be a very enjoyable partnership!

-V. B.

Preface: A Message to the Reader

The following is an electronic type of Muggle message that Professor Poe sent to all students before classes commenced this term. I thought it would perhaps give you some better insight about the class and the rest of reading to follow


- V. B.


"The owls are on strike, so this will have to do. There may be some confusion
about the textbooks for the class. You will be required to read all seven of
the Harry Potter novels. The class is based on the novels rather than the
movies, though we will refer to the movies. If you still have your dress robes
from when you completed NEWT studies before coming to Union for advanced work,
you may bring them so that you do not feel out of place. Brooms are optional,
but of course, if you want to play quidditch you will need one. Dean Thornbury
has not relented on the subject of magical creatures in the dorms, so the
policy remains that they are banned. You will also need a Bible in class.
Delicate, whirring magical instruments and pensives (whether Mac or Windows)
may be brought to class but may only be used for class business. Unlike
Professor Slughorn, I am not susceptible to bribbery by candied pineapple. A
list of things I am susceptible to for bribbery purposes will be distributed in
class.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to send me an owl."

Professor Poe